Sunday, 13 April 2014

FAC goes to Aberdeen and gets a Section 12 Notice: Day Two

The plan by FAC to organise a protest at SNP Spring 2014
conference was made a few weeks before the event.It was advertised on social media and on
websites belonging to the organisations which make up FAC.Nothing too earthshattering here it has to be
said – pretty standard stuff for single-issue campaigns such as our one against
the Offensive Behaviour Act.On the
Thursday before the event (which took place on weekend of 11/12 April) the
police emailed one of the organisers on her work email address instead of using
the FAC email address which was widely available via the publicity for the
event itself.Despite this, the
organisers co-operated fully with the police in terms of outlining their arrangements,
plans and expected numbers.We were a
bit surprised when they told us they had ‘intelligence’ which suggested that
smoke bombs would be let off, but ignored it as the nonsense it so patently
was.They made a few more calls but
there were no real issues to discuss and it all felt like overkill really.

The Friday protest which was made up of a small number of
local activists passed off fairly successfully with the police directing the
group to a suitable spot near the entrance to the venue and some delegates
coming out to speak to the protesters (see earlier blog).

On Saturday the bus left Glasgow city centre with a very
disappointing turnout (which has to be discussed at an appropriate time) Our members boarding the bus noticed they were
under surveillance fromtwo men in a
Grey Astra which had gone round the Square a few times then parked near the
departure point. The occupants of the bus suspected the occupants of the car
may in fact be police officers; some people expressed concern that they may
have been filmed or photographed entering the bus, others suggested that they
may be there to observe the large number of Dundee Utd fans who were gathering
outside the Counting House waiting on it opening. So everyone on the bus was
prepared to accept that the heavy police presence was to do with fans of the
other clubs playing a match later that afternoon – no paranoia on our bus! The
bus set off and joined the M8 when one of the passengers noticed the Grey Astra
was following the bus; we then realised that this was an unmarked police car.Further confirmation came when the bus left
the M8 at junction 9 to pick up some more people on the Edinburgh Road, the
Grey Astra followed and parked up in a car park near the pickup point. We don’t
know exactly how long the car followed the bus; it was still there by time we
got to Gartcosh.A bit crazy we thought
– especially since our number consisted of people aged in every decade from the
1st to the 6th – hardly a band of hardened rioter!

Anyway, the rest of the journey continued quietly enough and
we reached the AECC in Bridge of Don just after 1pm.As we approached the roundabout outside the
venue we could see police officers waiting and radioing forward.As we pulled to a halt we were met with a
number of officers and some of the conference security people.A sergeant approached to greet us and one of
our organisers was handed a typewritten sheet headed ‘Strategic Intention’ (link
to follow).Our woman just folded it and
put it in her pocket!We were told that
they would ‘escort’ us up to a place in front of the entrance but that the
venue security people wanted a word first.In the spirit of co-operativeness, for which we are known (!), our rep
approached the dark suited securocrats who had a very important message to
convey.I quote ‘We have babies and
young children here, so could you please not cover your faces because it will
frighten them.’That is a verbatim
quote – I kid you not!Our rep just
shook her head, told them not to be so stupid, told them we had children with
us too; asked if that was all they had to say, and walked away!

We had carried with us 3 pensioners and a 12-year old who
were just coming along for the ride and our driver was going to drop them in
town and then come back for them.The
police seemed a bit upset that he was moving the bus again but finally agreed
to ‘let’ him do it.

Anyway, off we trooped, now joined by the guys from Aberdeen
who were there for the second day, and made our way round to an area enclosed
by crash barriers facing the front entrance.One of our number stepped away from the group to head to the front
entrance to stub a cigarette out on the ashtray.Immediately a female police officer rushed
towards him and laid her hands on him to push him away.He had to explain what he was doing before she
would step back.Another of our number
had also stopped to wait for him coming back and she was approached to ask why
she was separate from the group (which was then radioed in to someone).

By this time the rest of us had arrived at the designated
area and were just about to put our banner up and sort out the placards, when
another senior officer arrived, Chief Inspector Nick Topping.He called us over and advised us that Police
Scotland were issuing a Section 12 Notice under the Public Order Act as he
feared that a public procession might take place: he specifically mentioned the possibility that
we might go to McDonalds along the road!He indicated that the effect of the Notice was that we could only move
from that area in groups of ‘no more than 5 or 6’ .He was asked if any other protest group had
been issued with this Notice, for instance UNISON who had been there earlier
that day, and he replied no.He said
that he was acting on the orders of Chief Superintendent Watson, Aberdeen
division.

He then left accompanied by assorted flunkies, leaving us in
the capable hands of two very affable chaps in uniform who stayed so close to
us all day that I feel quite lost without them today! We then proceeded to the business of the day,
which was to let the SNP delegates know what their leadership had done in their
name.A number of them approached us to
ask what it was about.The really scary
thing over the two days was the dawning realisation that many SNP members have
no clue about this Act and the damage it is doing.John Mason MSP approached us, as he always
does, and peddled his ‘we introduced this to protect the Irish and the
Catholics’ line.Note to John:this is becoming very tiresome, so please try
to think up a new one which actually fits with the facts.

Some SNP activists were less than pleased about our chants
etc.One elderly lady...well, woman,
shoved her face into a protester in a very aggressive way in front of the
police.The police officers moved in as
though to protect her and not the victim....same old, same old!We filmed delegates and asked them how they
liked being filmed while going about their lawful business.All the while we were being filmed by police
officers from inside the building; we saw them and filmed them back!

During the protest we were also approached by a number of
journalists from different countries.From the UK we had the Guardian, the Sunday Mail and the Sun.We spoke extensively to the real journalists
but the Sun reporter was sent packing across the road with the words ‘Justice
for the 96’ ringing in his ears.Despite
loads of photographs being taken by the press, none seem to have made it into
the Sunday papers.

At 3pm we knew that Alex Salmond, who like his Deputy Leader
did not arrive at his own conference via the front door, would be
speaking.One of the organisers called
the group together to outline what we wanted to do next ie take a wee break and
then prepare for all the SNP delegates leaving at the end of his speech and
therefore the conference.The two police
officers seemed a bit miffed that they were not invited to that particular
briefing and tried to edge closer, asking as they did, ‘Is there a move on?’.However, they did provide us with bottled
water later on, so they mustn’t have been too upset.

The next half hour was a massive success for our group.The delegates exited into the late afternoon
sun all pleased with themselves, with their backs sore from all the slapping,
only to be confronted with a group of well-organised, vocal and well-focussed
(!) demonstrators.They were greeted with
chants of ‘What do we want?’‘Axe the
Act’ , ‘When do we want it?’ ‘Now; SS-SNP;Alex Salmond, Alex Salmond, we know you sneaked in the back;SNP!Shame on You; we sang Let the People Sing; we played music over the
loudhailer; our man on the loudhailer kept up a running commentary on all that
was wrong with the Act; he pleaded with delegates to question their leadership
about whether this Act would damage their chances of delivering a Yes
vote.Towards the end we spontaneously
burst into a rendition of Roll of Honour.No one was offended and, even if they were, it is not an offence anyway,
since we were not ‘in the context of a regulated football match’ .

One of our friendly minders asked to be given 5 minutes
notice of our departure time so that they could come with us.We duly packed up, leaving the area free of
all litter, and headed back towards our bus only to find that our bus was
blocked in by a police car, making it impossible for us to move. One of our
members spoke to the officer in the car and asked why they were there, saying
‘are you here to escort us out of the city’ to which he replied ‘yes that is
our instructions’.Our man then told him
that we didn’t feel the need for an escort and, in actual, fact we would be
picking up our wee pensioner group in town and then we might, as law-abiding
citizens, decide to stop for a bite to eat or a few pints, but that we hadn’t
decided.The officer then boarded the
bus and asked the driver where we were picking up the other group, but insisted
on scouting us right up to a roundabout about a mile from the conference
centre.Another officer then told us that the ‘next time we came
up he would expect at least 3 days notice’ – I never thought of it at the time
but I should have told him to consult the published fixture list.

The rest of the journey home was uneventful and involved a
pretty good sing-song on the bus.However, one of the local boys was stopped by the police on his way home
and told this was a ‘routine’ stop but they took the trouble to let him know
that they knew where he had been.He
questioned them on their right to stop him and for his trouble was called a
‘smart-arse’.That particular incident
will be the subject of a complaint to the Aberdeen police.

All in all, it was a pretty successful day but it was a long
day and it all fell on the shoulders of a very small number of people and that
is not right.We will take legal advice
about the Section 12 Notice because we are fairly sure it was a
disproportionate action and therefore unlawful.

FAC will review these events and decide the next steps to
take in the campaign.The next Open
Meeting will take place on 14th May and I expect it will be
discussed there as well.